Big Brother favourite on why she took job as Amazon delivery driver

Big Brother's history-making contestant Lisa Appleton's current role is a far cry from the fame she found on the show.

One of the most beloved faces to come out of the 2008 series, in which she and ex-husband Mario Marconi entered the house as the show's first ever couple, Appleton, 55, revealed to The Sun that a litany of collapsed projects forced her to stay humble and get a normal job as an Amazon delivery driver to abate the costing of living crisis.

Read more: Big Brother reboot: Start date, presenters, cast as new logo revealed by ITV

"Obviously with the lockdown, a lot of my projects at the time got cancelled. So in the meantime, because of the cost of living and stuff like that, food has gone up, everything has gone up. I can't believe the prices sometimes, they have added a pound on to things," explained the 55-year-old.

"Electricity's gone up so I thought as a boost to my income I would get a job at Amazon."

Appleton completed a four-day training programme at Amazon before being unleashed on the roads, however, the TV personality soon came to appreciate the stressful task that lay ahead of her.

"Everything was fine to start with, you get about 15 mins to load up but it was raining all day, and my phone kept getting wet," she recalled.

"You are rushing because you are under pressure to get to the next one. You have to deliver about 28/30 parcels in an hour. I managed 28 in three hours.

Read more: Big Brother presenters: Who has hosted the reality show?

"What really put me off is the narrow streets, with dead ends, nowhere to turn, you have to reverse back, you have to stop outside someone's house, someone comes behind you they have to be patient because there is nowhere to turn round."

As ITV2's reboot of Big Brother fast approaches, Yahoo has plucked out some of the jobs previous well-known contestants are plying out in the real world.

Take 2007 runner-up Glyn Wise for example, who announced via Instagram last year that he'd been accepted for an ordained minister traineeship - writing: "I've really enjoyed giving sermons & bringing the good word to people. In 2 years time I'll be Father Glyn - my life will be like a sketch show out of #vicorofdibley & #fatherted but I'm looking forward to it! So happy!"

Penny Ellis, who infamously dropped her bath towel on the show 21 years ago, is now a pot-wash for Morrisons, following a harsh run of luck as a school teacher.

"I've tried to teach for the last 20 years on and off and it's been an absolute disaster every single time - it ranges from hysteria to kids throwing s*** at me so I've literally lost 16 jobs," she told The Sun.

"I am now washing up – I call myself a cutlery cleaning agent – for a national retail grocery giant but actually I'm a washer-upper in Morrisons. At the end of the day I wash up in Morrisons and I've never been so happy. It's the best job I've ever had."

The iconic format's first-ever winner, Craig Phillips, has gone on to enjoy a career in showbiz with various TV gigs.

One of which was presenting ITV's 60 Minute Makeover, which sees a team of DIY experts rush into someone's house (unbeknownst to them) and tart up their homes within the hour before they return home.

It's not all smooth sailing, though, because one recipient didn't like the idea of them ripping out his old stuff, as Phillips recently shared with The Daily Star: "The gentlemen whose house we were at got wind of it and decided I'm not having this, I'm coming back."

Meanwhile, series 3 champion Kate Lawler is now surfing the radio waves for Virgin after a stint presenting TV programmes.

"The trick to having a successful post-Big Brother career is partly luck and partly hard work," she reflected while speaking to The Guardian in 2020.

"I did [Channel 4 breakfast TV show] RI:SE, which was great. Then I did a TV show called Celebrity Wrestling, which I loved, but the ratings weren't good. I disappeared from TV for a few years, because the opportunities just weren't there.

"I learned to DJ instead and had great fun doing that for a few years – it was very hedonistic – and then I moved into radio. I love music and talking, so it's my dream job."

Despite his status as a Big Brother all-timer, Pete Bennett never truly caught fire outside the circus that is reality TV.

After stopping by The Jeremy Kyle Show in 2015, the series 7 winner established his own cleaning firm known as Celebriclean a year later. According to The Mirror, Bennett charged £100 an hour for work such as mowing the grass, scrubbing the oven and even ironing, yet the venture soon flopped.

He has 25 acting credits over on IMDB, with his biggest part being in Catherine Tate's The Nan Movie.

Famously hooking up with Chanelle Hayes during his Big Brother 8 stint, Ziggy Lichman went on to cameo in the meta zombie series Dead Set, created by Black Mirror's Charlie Brooker.

An acting career wasn't to follow, though, as reports suggest that he moved into restaurateuring for a while and now works as a talent manager in London.

Watch: Big Brother ITV2 reboot trailer